Will Joe Biden live up to everyone's expectations?

US President-elect Joe Biden

Joe Biden will replace Donald Trump as the 46th President of the United States on January 20. After Joe Biden becomes President, the world's eyes will be on him and his working style.

On the one hand, Americans have high hopes for him to deal with the Corona pandemic, for peace and improvement in the economic situation.

One thing for sure with the end of the Trump era, Biden's cabinet must be knowledgeable, qualified people and key leadership positions. He will show up to work early in the morning, listen to his advisors, read his daily briefings, attend meetings, and delegate tasks to the right people. He will hold press conferences where he answers questions fairly consistently; none of the media will be accused of being fake or insulted.

He will have a staff member who sends official tweets on his account that are checked for accuracy and meet administration guidelines. There won't be many of them - certainly not dozens in a single day. Tweets will never be in all caps.

From an international perspective, leaders worldwide are already trying to find ways to move forward with Biden. All the global powers crave stability, and for the first time in four years, they might have a partner in the U.S. that uses influence rather than threats to achieve strategic goals.

Canada's relationship with the Trump administration can best be called thorny. Trump said Canada was a potential threat when he cut off PPE and travelled to Canada to withdraw later. He is well documented as targeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is about to be scammed following a G7 meeting. Trump has imposed tariffs on Canada on steel and aluminum, which hurts Canada and harms American manufacturers—detained as alleged spies by the Chinese government in retaliation for ruling Huawei. In short, the Trump administration was not very popular with Canadians.

In the Democrat President Barrack Obama time PM Trudeau had a great relationship with him. Joe Biden was Obama's vice president at the time. This should suggest a return to friendly cooperative relationships, but it may be too much expectation, even hope. Biden made it clear that he swears to kill the Keystone pipeline, a major Canadian multi-billion-dollar economic initiative. Killing a pipeline can be risky as many kilometres of pipes have already been laid and would have to be torn.

But so far, news that leaked come out, U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has indicated plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, that will not be healthy news for Canadians.

China wants to end the trade war started by U.S. President Donald Trump and lift sanctions on Chinese tech company Huawei in addition to U.S. sanctions and cuts on Chinese goods.

China is also keen to work with the United States on climate change and the Corona epidemic. Besides, China hopes that the administration of Joe Biden will play a more effective role in its interests in internal national security and human rights matters.

Countries in the Middle East expect the Biden administration to do more to improve relations between the Gulf States. They hope that under Joe Biden, the United States will take the same steps to improve relations in the Gulf as it has taken in ties with Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Some Gulf states fear that Joe Biden could move in the direction of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. They hope to talk to other countries before taking any step in this direction and bringing them into confidence. The Biden administration also expects these countries to play a positive role in human rights and refugee issues in Yemen and Syria.

Mexico hopes that Joe Biden will change the immigration policy for Mexicans and give them relief. Under current policies, thousands of people seeking asylum in the United States have to live in dangerous areas of Mexico on the U.S. border until their applications are processed.

Citizens of Latin America hope that Biden will impose strict sanctions against Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. At the same time, the people's eyes here are on how Biden deals with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is considered a staunch supporter of Trump.

However, analysts believe that it will not be easy for Joe Biden to live up to everyone's expectations.

-Writer in Nairobi